Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412100002
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Imagine that playground come to life, here in Roanoke, and you've got Discovery Zone.
Adults wish their playgrounds had been this cool.
And for just the price of a Power Ranger action figure or a pizza, kids under 13 can play here.
"Kiddie heaven," one mother calls it. "Elitist," a child psychologist says.
The newest in the chain of "Discovery Zone FunCenters" quietly opened near Tanglewood Mall about three weeks ago, and if you're not impressed by the colorful facade, just watch a kid's face light up while passing the place.
"My son saw the building from the road," says Roger Mumpower, sitting in the dining area while Spencer, 6, tore through the playground. "That's all it took."
Discovery Zone is the leader in the "pay-to-play" industry, where kids can play safely in an antiseptic, climate-controlled, plastic world. And they love it.
Nine-year-old Clay Bandy has been running around the "FunCenter" for about an hour and a half. He pauses long enough to talk about his preferences.
"I like to climb that mountain," he says, pointing to the "Blue Mountain," a padded climbing peak that requires climbers to pull themselves up by a rope using their hands and feet. "It's so high. After you get to climb it, you get to fall down."
He's not tired, even after a grueling workout of running, jumping, climbing and yelling.
"I'm still ready," he insists, then goes sprinting back into the mix.
His mother, Tammy White, is happy to let her two sons wear themselves out in the Mega Zone.
"This is going to be wonderful this winter," she says, watching from a bench where most of the parents retreat.
Parents are encouraged to play with their kids, and in a reversal of the standard charges for entertainment, parents play for free. Kneepads to save the old joints, however, must be rented.
The Discovery Zone chain was started in 1989 by two fitness experts who saw "frightening statistics that kids weren't getting enough exercise," says district manager Sam Rice. Everything's designed to "help develop children's motor skills, strength, confidence and self-esteem," according to the company.
Play is unstructured, but a workout chart over by the bathroom shows exercises kids can do using the play equipment to help improve agility and flexibility, upper body strength, leg strength and coordination.
On a recent visit, the action seems less athletic than it is frenzied. Little sweaty bodies whirl by, romping and sliding, crawling and giggling.
Jona Williamson was there with her 5-year-old son and a child she babysits, and she couldn't drag them away. She was ready to leave when her son said, "One more time!" She figured one more time would take another half-hour. Even then, after they had put their shoes back on - a sign reads "Socks Required to Play" - they ran back into the ball bath.
"I wish this was in my backyard," Williamson says of the huge maze of trails and activities. "I'll definitely come back. It's a very good idea for active little boys. They can use their energy in the right way - exercising."
Williamson said she would use the place as a reward for occasions when her son had a good week in school.
That's what brought White and her two boys to the FunCenter as well.
"They both had a good day in school," White says. "I thought, `why not?'"
She loves the place.
"I like the way I know I don't have to worry about someone taking them," White says, refering to the tight security measures.
Everyone, even visitors, gets a name tag. Parents also get wrist bands and a "family security code" worn by each member of the family. The codes on parents' and children's name tags are matched up at the check-out counter before they leave.
In a world of milk-carton reminders and parental vigilance about safety, Discovery Zone offers a haven where kids can run loose safely.
Not everyone's a believer. A few academics and child psychologists have criticized pay-to-play spots as too sterile, hyperstimulating and exclusive - because poorer kids in unsafe neighborhoods are the least likely to afford indoor playgrounds.
"The whole idea of having to pay to play makes me think parents mean well, but it also means their children aren't experiencing a wide range of other kids," says Anita Landau Hurtig. "And then, what happens to those other kids?"
Hurtig is a professor of psychology and pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She called indoor playgrounds "both elitist and also a sign of the times." She said she's bothered to see pay-to-play spots booming when bond referendums for schools and playgrounds can't gain support in some cities.
They're "bringing the concept of the mall down to kids: `We organize everything for you, and you have to pay for it.'"
Others fear that parents who can afford to take the kids to indoor playgrounds may be less supportive of funding for parks and recreation programs if they stop using them as much.
But Discovery Zone's marketing is geared toward finding a place in families' entertainment budgets, money they would spend on other activities.
"It's an entertainment thing," Rice says. "It's a choice, like going to a movie or going out to eat."
Discovery Zone is 50-percent owned by Blockbuster Entertainment, which already has a stronghold on the video rental market and is breaking into the music store business. The chain just reached 300 stores after purchasing "what we considered our only competition, Leaps & Bounds," a McDonalds Corp. business.
The Roanoke County location was chosen for its demographics of kids 12 and under, Rice says. But the Southwest County area Discovery Zone chose actually has a kid population a little bit smaller than the rest of the Roanoke Valley. What the well-to-do area does have, though, is kids with money.
Cosby Rogers, a Virginia Tech professor who specializes in play and the learning process, has never visited a Discovery Zone, but has strong opinions on public support of children.
"I can't see it as being harmful in any way," she says of the proliferation of indoor playgrounds. "The problem is the American people haven't yet devoted resources for all children. Those who have the means are going to go ahead and give their children these opportunities."
Children need lots of unstructured play time in a safe environment, she stresses.
"That's probably why they've resorted to building these things - you know you can take your kids and they won't get shot at."
For kids under 40 inches tall, usually 2-year-olds and younger, there's the Micro Zone, a scaled-down version of the big kids' playground with giant, soft blocks to build forts and tents and stuff.
The Mega Zone, where everything is bright primary colors, is where the action is. The tubes and tunnels reach the ceiling, vaguely reminiscent of plastic hamster cages. Bungy cord walkways, a trapeze, giant blocks stacked for stairs and an obstacle course keep kids busy for hours.
Lashawnna Wright, 7, a Westside Elementary first-grader, was on her first visit.
"I've been watching TV," she says. "I saw this on TV, and I asked my uncle."
She was a little unsure about some of the activities - the tunnel and the balls looked a little intimidating - so she and a friend tested out the equipment in the Micro Zone first till she got up her courage to go in the Mega Zone.
"I just want to go here a lot," she declares.
Two hours is a typical trip, Rice says, but the kids show that to be an underestimation. Of course, one parent points out, the place is new - maybe the novelty will wear off after a few trips.
Or maybe not.
"We've probably been 10 times," Mumpower says, and the place has only been open about two weeks. His son Spencer has an annual pass. Mumpower comes over later, as he's getting ready to leave and says, "If this is going in the newspaper, make that five times. I don't want to look fanatical."
"I like to slide down the rollerslide on my belly and my bottom," says Spencer, before telling a reporter he has nothing else to say and scampers back to the rollerslide.
Little sister Paris, 1, comes along sometimes too, but not as often. Father and son usually spend about half-hour or an hour there at night or during cold weather.
"It takes the place of playing out in the yard or going to the park," Mumpower says.
The FunCenter has some of the usual kiddie trappings - a separate room has games and pinball-type machines that cost money to play. But, Rice notes, there are no violent or video games and they all stress hand-eye coordination.
There's also the DZ Diner, where visitors can purchase cotton candy, pizza, cookies - "traditional children's food," Rice calls it. The prices aren't outrageous - a hot dog's $.99, a cookie $.35.
Kathy Roberson signed up her son's sixth birthday party in one of the four party rooms before the place even opened. She was entertaining 10 kindergarten boys, but she just got to sit there and watch them play for several hours.
"You've been here that long and you still look this good?" marvelled a mother sitting next to her. "This is testimony that this is a great place."
Will she be back?
"I'm sure of it," Roberson says. "Either that, or I'll be disowned as a mother."
by CNB